Lord, teach me to pray as you wish. If you are new to mental prayer, we invite you to visit our page on the ways of mental prayer, Don’t know how to pray to God, to learn more.
We begin Day 5 of our Lenten Challenge with this opening prayer:
TRUST AND BELIEVE...
Lord,
I believe you want to give me the grace to go deeper in prayer this Lent. Help me to be present to you so that I’ll intimately pray these next 15 minutes with my heart fully open and willing to receive that grace.
Please help me open my heart and pray with more intensity. Lord, teach me to pray as you wish. Lord Jesus, teach me to pray the Our Father and understand the meaning of the words. Lord, let me pray it as you wish, from the heart, with true devotion. I often pray this prayer with my mind distracted, and my heart far from communion with you. Sometimes I do it as a duty. Sometimes I find the prayer is ended and I don’t remember praying parts of it at all.
Lord forgive me. Without the grace of your Spirit guiding me, my prayers do not come from my heart. Please open my heart and mind and teach me to pray as you wish.
I want to be able to visualize myself with you so I can feel your presence more intimately in my life this Lent. Lord, give me the grace I need as I strive to complete these 40 days of daily Lenten reflections. I am choosing to take up my cross and humbly follow you all the way to Calvary and I want to learn from you how to pray with my whole heart.
AMEN.
Tuesday of the 1st Week of Lent (Liturgical Year II)
Lord, Teach me to Pray as You Wish
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Join me in a prayerful meditation for your Lenten journey on how to pray from the heart.
Lord, Teach Me to Pray as You Wish
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
TRUST AND BELIEVE...
Holy Spirit,
I believe you are truly here and present to me right now. I desire to be present to you. Guide my heart and mind and show me how I might pick up my cross and follow Jesus all the way to Calvary. Lord, teach me to pray as You wish, from my heart and without distraction.
Help me pray with focus and love. Please, Lord, have mercy on me and help me to pray as I ought to. I acknowledge my sins and all the ways I have chosen myself over spending time with you in prayer. Sometimes I struggle to pray, and my mind is distracted. Please help me to focus and not be distracted in prayer and please give my heart the fire of your love.
Breath on me as I spend these next 15 minutes fixated on today’s Mass readings. Holy Spirit, help me pray with humility, honesty, love and affection. I want to learn to pray from my heart.
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for every consolation, desolation, time of silence, difficult trial, and temptation of the evil one. I understand that you love me and that everything in my life happens by God’s holy will, whether it be divine providence or God’s permissive will due to my sin and negligence.
Please humble me as I open my heart and learn to walk with Jesus toward Calvary. Teach me to pray as you wish; I want to grow to love you more perfectly.
AMEN.
Say Nothing Just Take Him In
Spend 1-3 minutes in silence gazing at the Lord with love and gratitude, in a prayer of silent contemplation.
Make a Movie in Your Mind...
Now we will contemplate the first reading. Slowly imagine this scene in your mind as you read. Take your time. Pause over a moment that really tugs at your heart. Reread the passage again, this time imagine yourself physically there in the scene. What do you hear? See? Feel? Sense?
Lord, Teach me to Pray as You Wish
The Word that Goes Forth
Isaiah 55:10-11
Thus says the LORD: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the first reading.
Listen to the what the Lord tells the prophet Isaiah. Reread this passage a second time, asking the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom and understanding about the nature of God.
Now let’s personalize this passage from our first reading…
Have you ever doubted one of God’s promises? Have you ever received a consolation in prayer and then later lost faith or hope about it during a time of desolation?
Be Completely Real...
Talk to the Lord about this. Open your heart to him and then give the Holy Spirit time to respond.
Let us continue our mental prayer with today’s Gospel:
Visualize Christ
Now we will contemplate the Lord by listening to him speak to us in the Gospels. We are with the disciples and a gathering of people near the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. This grassy hill is the Mount of Beatitudes, also known as Mount Eremos, and is situated between Capernaum and Gennesaret. It is a serene location full of lush green grass and wildflowers. You feel the presence of God here, amid the warm sunny breeze and beautiful views of northwestern shores on the Sea of Galilee….
Lord, Teach me to Pray as You Wish
For the Least of These
Matthew 6:7-15
Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.
If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
Let us meditate on what Jesus means when he says, “Do not babble like the pagans, who think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
Contemplate Jesus for a moment. Imagine yourself in the scene in Matthew. You are part of the crowd who has come to hear Jesus speak. He is finished teaching, but he remains. He gazes at you. His look tells you that he knows your heart and he knows what you need before you ask him. He begins to speak to you. What is he saying?
Give the Holy Spirit time to respond.
Do these words pierce your heart?
Let us pray:
Lord, how many times have I prayed to you begging for something I wanted, like a child? Have I considered my need to assent to your will? Were my prayers pleasing to you? Or did you see me like a petulant child begging for a cookie before my dinner was eaten? Have I blamed you for not giving me what I want or think I need? Am I proud and unable to see that you are my Father and I am your child?
You know what I need before I ask you. You know my needs. Please, Lord, give me the humility and grace to surrender to your will so that I pray as you wish. Please, Lord, don’t let me pray for things that are bad for me, or for things that you do not wish for me to have. Eternal Father, teach me to pray as you wish. Please give me the grace to believe that your love for me is deep and that you are always faithful. Let me trust in you in all things. AMEN.
Reflection:
Now listen to this phrase in the prayer, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
What stands out to you here? I immediately understand that in heaven all things are done according to the will of God. But here, on earth, in my weakness and confusion, the will of God is often not fully understood by me. This is why when I pray these words I must mean it with my heart. Yes, Jesus, let us do your will now, here on earth, as it already is in heaven, where we want to be one day, face to face with you, praising you and glorifying your holy name.
Take a moment to ask Jesus questions from your heart… Maybe you want to ask him how to truly follow God’s will in your life.
Is there a prayer he wants you to pray? Is he asking you to give up something?
Give the Holy Spirit time to respond. Wait on the Lord. Ask him to reveal to you how he wishes you to pray. Linger on it. Ponder the weight of it.
What is the burden on your heart? Be honest with Jesus and tell him your fears. Has he shown you something? You may want to write it down.
Let us continue our mental prayer with a meditation from Saint Francis of Assisi:
Lord, Teach me to Pray as You Wish
A Meditation on the Lord's Prayer
By St. Francis of Assisi
OUR FATHER most holy, our Creator and Redeemer, our Savior, and our Comforter. WHO ART IN HEAVEN in the angels and the saints, giving them light to know you, since you, Lord, are light; setting them afire to love you, since you, Lord, are love; dwelling in them and giving them the fullness of joy, since you, Lord, are the supreme, eternal good, and all good comes from you. HALLOWED BE THY NAME, may we grow to know you better and better, and so appreciate the extent of your favors, the scope of your promises, the sublimity of your majesty, and the profundity of your judgements.
THY KINGDOM COME, so that you may reign in us by your grace, and bring us to your kingdom, where we shall see you clearly, love you perfectly and, happy in your company, enjoy you forever.
THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN, so that we may love you with all our heart, by always having you in mind; with all our soul, by always longing for you; with all our mind, by determining to seek your glory in everything; and with all our strength, of body and soul, by lovingly serving you alone. May we love our neighbors as ourselves, and encourage them all to love you, by bearing our share in the joys and sorrows of others, while offending no one.
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD, your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may remember and appreciate how much He loved us, and everything He said and did and suffered. AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES, in your immeasurable mercy, by virtue of the passion of your Son, and through the intercession of Mary, and all your saints. AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US, and if we do not forgive perfectly, Lord, make us forgive perfectly, so that, for love of you, we may really forgive our enemies, and fervently pray to you for them, returning no one evil for evil, but trying to serve you in everyone. AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, be it hidden or obvious, sudden or persistent.
BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL, past, present or future.
Amen.
Are You Listening?
Has praying the Our Father through the meditation of St. Francis of Assisi opened your heart to a deeper meaning of the Lord’s teaching in Matthew? Humbly ask the Lord to help you pray with this kind of holy love every time you pray the Our Father.
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 6 Mental Prayer Meditation
Jesus Have Mercy on Me and Thoroughly Wipe Out my Guilt
Jesus have mercy on me. Judge me as people of Nineveh who repented after Jonah warned them. Jesus, please thoroughly wipe out my guilt and heal me of my shame.